Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Teacher in Me

My close friends who are still "in the industry" are gearing up for another school year. Yes, they work in August. That three months off thing is a complete myth. Anyway, I find myself commiserating with them via email, and a very small part of me misses prepping a classroom and anticipating the year's new crop. In honor of this annual ritual I have written a short syllabus for Luke. Paul's is still in process and will probably not be published. Here's what I have so far.

Year Three of Your Life
Course Objectives
  • Potty Training - You will be willing and able to pee and poop on the potty
  • Sharing - You will be willing and able to share your toys with your baby brother and other playmates
  • Balanced Eating - You will be willing and able to eat more than carbs at any given meal
  • Volume Control - You will be willing and able to speak in an inside voice while inside
  • Obedience - You will be willing and able to obey your parental units and other adult figures
Course Materials
Please come to class each day with the following items. A lack of proper materials may result in an inability to fully participate in that days activities.
  • Your smile
  • A giggle or two
  • Cute Little Comments That Catch Me By Surprise
Grading Scale
All progress in this course will be graded using the following scale.
  • Completion = 100% resulting in high fives, big cheers, and possibly chocolate
  • Lack of Completion = Cr = You almost did it! Keep trying! Mommy loves you!
(I was never much for grading when I was in the classroom. I wanted to tell everyone how much I liked the way they had incorporated some aspect of our discussion in their writing...I never wanted to put a grade on their efforts. It seemed such a cheapening of the writing process. Needless to say, I did have to grade stuff. Most parents wanted to measure their child's success by my opinion of their writing. Lame)

Well, that's it for tonight, folks. I'll add a few pictures here at the end to keep the Grandmas happy. :-)

Paul moving around the chair with his tongue sticking out...obviously concentrating.

Luke sitting on the bus he creates with the chairs while I vacuum the dining room. Pretty fun.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great goals for the year! Just remember he hasn't read the book yet (-: Thanks for the pictures! I miss you alll bunches.
Love, Oma

Mimi Sison said...

You crack me up! I love the syllabus for the three-year-old. It was pretty neat reading through it and also your comments about your teaching years and how hard it was to grade our papers.

That's one of the things I most look forward to: reading students' compositions!!

Ahh...I can't believe Luke is only turning three. Next to Paul I thought he was at least a year older. Hmmm...they're both so cute!

You are so blessed!